French navy using balloons according to the Dutch newspaper De Sumatra Post dated 5 August 1912

The French minister of Marine accepted the proposal of engineer Surcouf to salvage the submarine sunk off Cherbourg with air balloons. All French navy harbours were to fitted out with such balloons to start within short time with experiments on a large scale.(1)

Note
1. The Pluviose, sunk on 26 May 1910 2 miles off Calais?